Calls from Dawood's house: ATS to probe charges against Khadse

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has directed the Anti-Terrorism Squad to probe the allegation that Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse received phone calls from fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's house in Karachi.
"Both I and the Chief Minister wanted the matter to be investigated...So the Chief Minister has asked ATS to probe it," Khadse told reporters today.
Khadse, the senior-most BJP leader in the state cabinet, claimed he had documents to prove that his mobile phone was hacked to show as if calls were made, and added that he would hand over all the evidence in this regard to the investigating agencies.

The beleaguered minister said the matter was already being investigated by the cyber crime cell and local police, and the Director General of Police was supervising the probe.
Spokesperson of AAP, Preeti Sharma Menon, had levelled the allegation against Khadse last week.
The minister today also sought to know why no questions were being asked about former AAP leader Anjali Damania's alleged dubious land deals in Raigad district.

Menon had alleged, citing the call records obtained from a Pakistani telecom company by an Ahmedabad-based hacker, that calls were made from Dawood's house in Karachi to a mobile number registered in Khadse's name.

Khadse had later rubbished the allegation saying the number was not in use for the last one year.
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Meanwhile, a day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Ibrahim would be nabbed soon, Opposition NCP took a dig at the government, asking if the gangster's phone calls to Khadse were made during the negotiations to bring him back.
"The Home Minister should clarify if the Centre is using Eknath Khadse to carry out negotiations to bring Dawood back to the country. That would explain the underworld don's calls to his number," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.